GREENLAND -- Will McGinnis got to see his fair share of fireworks last July 4.
"I didn't get to shoot any," McGinnis said.
3A-1 Regional Tournament
Thursday Schedule
1 Greenland vs. 4 Paris, 10 a.m.
2 Atkins vs. 3 West Fork, 12:30 p.m.
1 Booneville vs. 4 Elkins, 3 p.m.
2 Mansfield vs. 3 Charleston, 5:30 p.m.
He had to settle for watching them from the driver's seat of his black 2007 Chevy Tahoe during the six-hour drive from Cleveland, Miss., back home to Northwest Arkansas.
A week earlier he'd been offered the Greenland baseball job and leapt at the opportunity to move back to the area where he grew up, learned the game of baseball and ultimately played for his father, longtime Springdale High hall-of-fame coach David McGinnis. So he packed everything up, hitched a U-Haul trailer to the Tahoe and made it home by the end of the holiday.
The 2006 Springdale graduate spent his final three years of college playing at Delta State in Mississippi before working as an assistant coach at Cleveland High School for four years. The area became a second home for McGinnis, but Northwest Arkansas was always where his heart was.
"Basically when it was offered, it was no decision as far as wanting to be there," McGinnis said. "The place I was at was a great situation; it was just six hours from where I grew up."
McGinnis' first season as a head coach has been a resounding success. Greenland (17-10) won a share of the 3A-1 West Conference title, won the district tournament and enters today's first round of the regional tournament as a No. 1 seed, set to face Paris at 10 a.m. The Pirates earned the No. 1 seed in a 6-4 win Saturday over Mansfield, the team it shared an 8-2 record with in conference play.
The Pirates will advance to their second straight state tournament with a win. They were one and done at state a year ago. If they play well this week, they could earn a more favorable state-tournament draw.
"I feel good going into it," McGinnis said. "One through nine, we're really solid. Some teams we play, they're really relying on three and four hole (hitters) to carry them. But our bottom half and top half can score runs. There's not a guy that comes up to the plate where I'm thinking, 'Well, crap, we can't do anything.'"
The maturation of some of the Pirates' standouts has been key to their progression, but so has the arrival of McGinnis, whose meticulous approach and attention to detail has rubbed off on his team. The Pirates rake their field before and after every practice. McGinnis posts a detailed practice schedule, down to the minute, before each day begins. He sent the team a wake-up text this morning to make sure they were all ready to go by the time the bus left for Atkins a little before 7 a.m.
"Everything's got to be perfect," senior Mason Miller said. "He's really exact about everything."
McGinnis being back hasn't only benefitted him. It's given his father a new team to come watch and cheer for.
"One of the reasons I wanted to get out of baseball is I wanted to follow his career in baseball when he was playing," David McGinnis said. "It just so happened that he went into that profession, so it's sort of nice. I can still get my baseball fix going to watch him."
The younger McGinnis still remembers the lineup for his father's 1998 state championship Springdale team. Now he's back home, set on crafting a legacy of his own.
Sports on 05/05/2016